Political Machine: Why Philly needs more cabs
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
We only have 1.12 cabs per 1,000 people — way below average for a big city.
Compact Philadelphia, where many stops are a short ride away, has about as many taxis per person as sprawling, auto-oriented Houston, Dallas and Los Angeles.
Even with the 45 new medallions the Philadelphia Parking Authority (our taxi regulator) just issued for wheelchair-accessible cabs, we only have 1.12 cabs per 1,000 people. Compare that to Washington, D.C., which has 12 cabs per 1,000 people. New York City, considering all its types of rides-for-hire, has about 6.3 cabs per 1,000 people. In Chicago, it’s 2.6 cabs per 1,000.
In Philly, the number of taxi medallions — which confer the legal privilege to operate a taxi — is capped at 1,845. To get to Chicago’s ratio, the PPA would need to double the number of medallions.
Whether the PPA should run the city for the taxi riders, or for a handful of wealthy medallion owners, is an issue that needs to be debated at the state and local level because it has huge consequences for how our city develops.
My neighborhood, Bella Vista, and others around the city, can’t handle any more cars. If we want to keep growing, we’ll have to figure out how to add more people without adding more cars. The answer is cabs. Many of the infrequently used second and third cars people have now could go away, and with the need for car storage reduced, we could add more parking-free housing and welcome more carless households.
Luckily, an inexpensive new service may be coming to town that could do just the trick. E-hailing apps Uber X and Lyft — cheaper versions of the Uber licensed black-car service, which allow people to rent out empty seats in their personal cars to strangers via smartphone — are illegal in Philadelphia. But state Sen. Wayne Fontana (D-Pittsburgh) has introduced a bill to legalize them under a “transportation network company” category.
That would take the PPA out of the regulatory driver’s seat and open the door to lower prices, more competition, a higher cabs-to-population ratio — and ultimately a more walkable, bikeable city.
